Compostable Coffee Pods

It is my belief that coffee people are concerned with aspects deeper than just how much they enjoy their daily fix of caffeine. Perhaps it is a preconception fuelled by the portrayal in popular culture of the types of conversations that take place in coffee shops but full disclosure, I am writing this piece seated firmly in the armchair of ‘confirmation bias’.

When I say ‘coffee people’, it extends to those, like me, who sometimes want a decent cup of coffee with just the press of a button. No measuring or grinding. No blooming or gently pouring in an anti clockwise direction. I appreciate all of those elements and all the ways that it contributes to not just a great cup of coffee, but a total experience. But, there are times… In the middle of an online meeting, late at night whilst binge watching a new series, where you just want a quick cup of coffee.

To cater for moments such as these (and for people who like good coffee but hate making it), the coffee pod industry has exploded. The key to success in this market are just three words. Compatible with Nespresso!

This is not a business article on how to effectively create a totally new segment for yourself in a saturated market. Nor is it a marketing or political piece. This article is about how culture can always evolve and more importantly, the introduction of fully compostable coffee pods (compatible with Nespresso) to the South African market.

Fully Compostable Coffee Pods. This was a product that I did not think we needed. Nespresso capsules are made with aluminium and they market their ‘recyclability’ very well and to be fair make it easier for one to recycle. You can choose to drop off the recycling pouch that they supply, either in store or with the courier when you order from their online store. They have partnered with Oricol in South Africa to extract the coffee (to make good soil) and recycle the aluminium. So from a carbon footprint perspective, provided you were recycling your used coffee pods, there did not appear to be a problem here.

However, the truth/ reality is that most used pods/ capsules end up in landfill sites where it could take as long as 500 years to decompose. Nespresso South Africa has a recycling rate of 35%, which was 3% higher than the global average in 2021, and does not account for all the other ‘compatible’ pods (Business Insider). The idea of more environmentally friendly coffee pods have therefore been gaining traction over the last decade internationally. It began with the use of plastics, that would break down faster in landfill sites to messier solutions that required the user to break apart the coffee pod, throw the used coffee grounds in the garden or compost heap, recycle the plastic bit (after washing) and collect all the aluminium lids and recycle them separately. It would be optimistic to assume that the person who wanted the convenience of popping in a pod and pressing a button to get their coffee, will then go through all that, to dispose of it sustainably.

Now it appears as if a young team of South African entrepreneurs have come up with an alternative to not only address the waste issue, but to also support local coffee roasters. 4WKS have partnered with some of the best micro roasters in the country (Bluebird Coffee Roastery, Deluxe Coffeeworks, Father Coffee, Terbodore Coffee Roasters, Truth Coffee Roasting and Rosetta Roastery), to bring you a coffee pod that is 100% compostable. From the Veg paper cover and the bio shell, this team ensured that even the ink was biodegradable. The drawback however is that the coffee has to be used within 4 weeks from being packaged (hence the name). And compostable, does not mean that you can throw it out with your household trash, guilt free.

The company has a program that facilitates the collection of spent pods that are then taken to a commercial composting farm. Currently, all the collection points and commercial composting farms are in the Western Cape. If you live anywhere else in the country, you can still throw these into your compost pile at home. For me personally, if I lived in Cape Town, this would have been a no-brainer. I love the idea of partnering with local roasters and using fresh coffee, even when using my Nespresso machine. The problem is that my compost bin is not large enough to handle this quantity of coffee pods. Which means that I would be moving from recycling my aluminium pods to throwing these in the bin. Admittedly they will decompose in a much shorter time at a landfill site, but it will still be contributing to the problem of waste collection and storage.

So, Compostable Coffee Pods seem to generate many questions and may not currently be for everyone, but it is progress. Even if the discussion forces you to re-think your carbon footprint and take responsibility for where your used pods end up (Recycled or in the compost heap). In conclusion, I have listed some advantages and disadvantages to consider when thinking of making the switch to compostable coffee pods.

Advantages

• Great selection of freshly roasted coffee from local micro roasters

• Environmentally friendly (if you live in Cape Town or have a large compost heap)

• Reduced shelf life

• Pods must be stored in an airtight container

• Sometimes the lid on the pod is not punctured adequately.